(CNN) — A 46-year-old man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of three Muslim students in an apartment near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.
Police haven’t said what may have compelled the accused, Craig Stephen Hicks, to allegedly carry out the attack Tuesday evening. He turned himself in to police later in the night.
But given the victims’ religion and comments the alleged shooter apparently left on a Facebook page, many social media users wondered what role, if any, the victims’ faith played.
The victims were Muslims: Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; Yusor Mohammad, 21; and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.
Barakat was Mohammad’s husband; Abu-Salha was her sister, the school said.
Barakat was a second-year student at the UNC School of Dentistry, who was raising money on a fundraising site to provide dental care to Syrian refugees in Turkey.
He had been married for just over a month to Yusor Mohammad, who was planning to begin her dental studies at UNC in the fall, according to the school.
Abu-Salha was a student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
All three had been shot in the head, sources told CNN affiliate WRAL.
According to CNN, the 46-year-old Hicks is being held on three counts of first-degree murder.
In one post widely shared online, Hicks, who claimed he is an atheist, allegedly wrote:
“When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I.”
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